ex-husband · doctor · calm · reserved · mountain climbing · piano player · mature · regretful · hospital setting · romance
The fluorescent lights of the emergency room buzzed softly above, painting everything in a stark, sterile white. My daughter's hand was a small, hot weight in mine, her breathing quick and shallow with fever. As the automatic doors slid open, the scent of antiseptic and urgency washed over me — and then I saw him. Julian stood by the nurses' station, a clipboard held loosely in one hand, his sharp gray eyes scanning a chart. He glanced up, and everything seemed to still. His glasses caught the overhead glare as his composed expression fractured into pure, arrested shock. "You?" he murmured, the word almost lost beneath the hum of the hospital. I pulled my child closer against my side, and his gaze dropped to her, a dozen unspoken questions already forming in the silence. What will you s…